London has been battered by 50mph winds that have felled trees and caused travel chaos. Powerful gusts swept across the capital as the Met Office issued a yellow "be aware" weather alert for most of the country.

Families of the Germanwings crash victims may have to wait up to four months for their remains to be identified.

In brief: Sterling powering ahead on jobs lift, Sony boosted by PlayStation 4 fever and sun shines on sales at John Lewis

Janet Yellen took a bullish tone Photo: Reuters/Joshua Roberts

Published: 17 April 2014

Updated: 14:04, 17 April 2014

The pound advanced to its highest level since May 2009 against the dollar today, touching $1.6835 as US Federal Reserve chairman Janet Yellen struck a less bullish tone with a warning over low US inflation.

Against a basket of currencies sterling is now at its highest since 2008 in the wake of upbeat UK jobs figures which brought forward market expectations for interest rate rises next year.

Sony boosted by PlayStation 4 fever

Sony said today it has sold more than 7 million PlayStation 4 games consoles since launching it a little over four months ago — double the sales of the PlayStation 3 over the same period when it launched. The Japanese electronics giant said it was struggling to keep up with demand, and added that it had sold 20.5 million digital and retail copies of PlayStation 4 software.

The sun shines on sales at John Lewis

Sunny skies and the Easter holidays boosted sales at the John Lewis Partnership last week. The retailer today reported that sales rose 9.5% to £198 million as shoppers sought new music streaming systems and the Easter home improvement season kicked off. Shoppers were also keen to get in the garden, as horticultural sales rose 17% to boost Waitrose’s total sales by 8.3% to £124.2 million.

Small firm inquiry clears RBS of fraud

Royal Bank of Scotland today said an independent review it commissioned to probe claims it drove small firms into administration for profit had found no evidence the lender systematically set out to defraud its business customers. Chief executive Ross McEwan welcomed the findings by law firm Clifford Chance and also announced changes to terms and charges for small firms.

Corley appointed to Pearson board

Education and publishing group Pearson, which recently issued a profits warning, has appointed one of the most influential women in the City to its board. Elizabeth Corley, chief executive of Allianz Global Investors, will join as a non-executive director in May. Twice named asset management’s most influential woman, she was also Financial News’ chief executive of the year in 2011.